What Is a Nursing Life Coach?
Life is hard, but stress can make it harder. Because nursing is so demanding, it’s essential for nurses to learn strategies for managing nurse stress in the workplace. The guidance of a nursing life coach may be helpful.
What Is a Nursing Life Coach?
A nursing life coach is an expert that helps nurses prioritize self-care, minimize stress, and find motivation for goals outside of work. A life coach can be essential for nurses who are overwhelmed and burnt out by their work. As a personal cheerleader and confidant, a nursing life coach can help nurses build the skills they need to be successful and happy.
What Can a Life Coach Help You With?
The role of a life coach is not to tell people what to do. Rather, a life coach is meant to help people learn how to help themselves. There are several ways a life coach can do this. For example, providing external motivation can be beneficial for people who aren’t sure where to start or who don’t have enough social support.
Furthermore, having a life coach can be a way for people to hold themselves accountable for goals they may have. For some people, it may be difficult to adhere to goals based solely on their own determination. However, when there is someone who is keeping track of goal setting, it may be easier to achieve those goals. The ways a nursing life coach can help include:
Discover Your Purpose
Individuals who go into nursing often believe that they have discovered their true purpose. However, nursing may not be your only calling in life. Nurses who are career-oriented may have lost sight of other purposes that could fulfill them in life, such as having a family, traveling, or buying a home.
Additionally, a life coach may help nurses realize that their greater calling is to be a doctor or to seek training in a specialized field of nursing. Discovering your purpose is the key to unlocking your happiness and satisfaction in life. A life coach can help you reflect on the things that make you happy in your work, and realize goals that emphasize that happiness.
Develop a Self-Improvement Strategy
Self-improvement is generally the pinnacle of a self-actualized life, which is why it is regarded to be the epitome of happiness and well-being. However, devising a self-improvement strategy for yourself can be difficult when you’re not sure where to start.
Your self-improvement can include everything from your general health to your spiritual connection. A life coach will help you examine various elements in your life so you can think about where you can improve. By improving yourself, you can ultimately be happier.
Deliver Achievable Goals
Having goals is one thing, but achieving goals is something else. To achieve your goals, you will have to learn how to set realistic goals that can easily be met. Delivering on achievable goals starts with goal setting and is supported by a life coach who holds you accountable for your goal timeline.
Designate Stress Management Technique
Finally, a life coach can help you designate stress management techniques. The stress management techniques that are best for you will depend on your personality, lifestyle, and preferences.
Uncovering the stress management techniques that work for you is often a trial and error process, especially if you aren’t sure which stress management techniques are most effective. A life coach will introduce you to many techniques so that you can identify the stress management coping skills that are most appropriate for you.
Strategies for Managing Nurse Stress in the Workplace
Nursing is a stressful occupation with many demands on your time, so how can you manage stress in the workplace? Although stress related to caring for patients is constant, there are many strategies you can use at work and at home to reduce some of your stress. Some of these strategies for managing nurse stress in the workplace include:
Take Care of Your Health
If you want to take care of anyone else, you first must take care of yourself. Focusing on your health by keeping health appointments, exercising regularly, and eating a balanced diet can keep you primed to cope with sudden stress. Even something as simple as starting the day with a balanced breakfast or keeping healthy snacks on you at work can be crucial for managing stress.
Many nurses experience sleep difficulties and fatigue. Studies show that getting adequate sleep is exceptionally beneficial for reducing stress levels. A life coach can help you build a healthy sleep routine, even if you’re working swing shifts.
Stay Socially Active
Humans are social creatures, and even if you have a more introverted nature, you can still benefit from social interaction. Whether it’s a support group, online community, or a weekly brunch with friends, staying socially active is a good way to reduce stress.
Furthermore, having social connections can allow you to share the burdens of your stress. For example, you can talk to the people in your life about your stress and strategies for managing nurse stress in the workplace.
Schedule “Me” Time
In recent years, there has been an emphasis on self-care in mental health circles. Self-care is one of the most important things you can do to take care of your physical, mental, and emotional health. While self-care can be classified as meeting basic eating and hygiene necessities, the most effective self-care is scheduling “me” time.
During “me” time, you can focus solely on your own pleasure and enjoyment. For example, dedicating a few minutes a day to reading, hobbies, or other interests can help you minimize stress in your life. A life coach will also remind you to indulge from time to time, such as with a salon visit or a day off.
Get More Space
At work, it may be helpful to reduce stress by getting more space. By giving yourself more space, you can remove yourself from a stressful atmosphere, take a breather, and de-escalate your stress response.
One good strategy for getting space at work is eating lunch away from your hospital or healthcare facility. For example, if you make your lunch at home, you may consider eating outside rather than at your desk or a break room. By giving yourself some distance midday to nurture your body with nutrients, you can give yourself the air and space you need to reduce stress.
Recognize Your Stress Signs
It’s also important to recognize your stress signs. Everyone responds to ongoing stress differently. For example, some people get tension headaches while other people become irritable. Recognizing the signs of your stress will help you learn when to implement some of your coping strategies.
Ideally, you should learn to recognize early signs of stress, such as tension in your body, so that you can nip stress in the bud before it becomes a chronic problem. Some signs of stress nurses may experience can include headaches, backaches, physical strains, fatigue, memory lapses, anxiety and depression, irritability, poor appetite, weight loss or weight gain, nightmares, difficulty sleeping, and more.
Implement Cognitive-Behavioral Skills
Several studies show that implementing basic cognitive behavioral skills can also minimize stress. For example, deep breathing exercises can reset the body to reduce cortisol levels in only a few minutes, which can help you feel less irritable or anxious.
Other cognitive behavioral skills may include reframing stress with positive thinking. Many people try to minimize stress by denying stress, but all this does is perpetuate the problem and increase feelings of guilt. However, by acknowledging your stress and turning to positive thinking, you may be able to lower your stress response.
Manage Your Energy
A life coach will also teach you the importance of managing your energy. Everyone is given 24 hours in a day that they must allocate to their obligations. By learning how to manage your energy, you can create habits that will make the most of your energy every day.
For example, eating light meals and taking a break can help you manage your physical energy. You can manage your mental energy by scheduling specific times of the day for certain tasks, such as checking the mail. And at home, you can turn off your email notifications so that you can focus on your home life instead of work.
Limit Multitasking
Although multitasking feels productive, it can make you less efficient and cause more stress. While nursing involves a certain level of multitasking to keep up with the demands of multiple patients, there are still ways you can limit multitasking in the workplace. For example, avoiding working while eating and drinking water can help you focus on the present moment instead of the tasks that still need to be done.
A nurse coach can be a helping hand when you need to learn how to prioritize the important things in your life. A life coach can help you learn strategies for managing nurse stress in the workplace, as well as helps you identify your purpose in life and build achievable goals. Contact Feyi Sangoleye today to learn about more ways a nursing life coach can benefit you.